Ukrainian startup Party Space attracted $1 million in investment from the Ukrainian fund TAVentures, the network of private investors ICLUB and Hungarian fund Day One Capital, the company’s cofounder Yurii Filipchuk announced on Oct. 13.
Now the startup is ready to step into the budding market of the metaverse, a digital world where people work, socialize, and play. Apart from Party Space, the metaverse has caught the attention of big tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Epic Games.
The main idea behind Party Space is to make online meetings more interesting. Ukrainian techies Yurii Filipchuk, 29, Arthur Ostapenko, 37, and Dmitry Zvada, 32, launched a service amid the pandemic, in May 2020. They were tired of communication via text messages or traditional platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, and decided to explore a new niche — a metaverse.
Ukrainian Party Space allows users to host online events in a personalized world, where guests can travel between the locations, talk to one another, attend music concerts and play online games. Party Space analyzes how people behave online, what things they like and how much time they spend on the platform — it helps to arrange better meetings in the future, Filipchuk said.
As of today, Party Space has 11 venues for online events, including a hall for virtual workshops, a space for online parties and a Hogwarts-like castle for online quizzes. The price for these venues starts at $20 per participant. The cost of the personalized virtual space exceeds $100,000, Filipchuk told the Kyiv Post.
The company’s main markets are the U.S. and Scandinavian countries — Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. “People there are open to innovations,” Filipchuk said. The clientele of Party Space includes Swedish car manufacturer Scania, game development company Wargaming, online writing assistant Grammarly and Swedish provider of royalty-free music Epidemic Sound.
For Wargaming’s 300 employees, the Ukrainian startup created a space with a reception area, the main concert hall, and several rooms for themed events. The entire area was branded in Wargaming’s color and company logos.
“Many were frankly surprised by the implementation of the event,” said Max Grachev, the senior event manager at Wargaming. “Party Space looked unusual but at the same time, close to reality.”
According to Filipchuk, few companies can produce the product of a similar quality as Party Space. Investors agree: “Our venture fund was impressed by the project,” said Igor Pertsiya, partner at TAVentures.
The overall investment in Party Space exceeds $1.2 million, Filipchuk told the Kyiv Post. His company doesn’t aim to become profitable — it now focuses on conquering the market. “We want people to associate 3D events with our brand,” he said.
With the investment money raised in October, the company wants to grow further: to scale its sales, add new features and launch a collection of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. These blockchain tokens represent a unique digital item like an image or a photo. Party Space wants to use them fot virtual exhibitions on its platform.
Filipchuk understands that after the pandemic people will start spending less time online and the demand for the Party Space service could fall. However, for many businesses, online meetings will remain preferable as they allow to save money on food, equipment, and the rent of conference halls.
“Besides, many users admit that Party Space helps them feel reconnected,” Filipchuk said.
